3/30/11

AVENGERS #11—Bendis and company slam down on the gas with this one, delivering seventeen splash pages in a row before breaking the flow for a three-panel page and a sixteen panel page of head shots before hitting us with three more splashes to take us out. This might not sound that good on paper, and I did take Finch to task for delivering far less splashes last week, but the effect here is one of steadily rising tension. I mean, don’t worry, there’s still a bit of talking going on, here. Even best, the Watcher narrates in purple prose captions, something I now can’t believe nobody thought of during Claremont’s classic run on UNCANNY. I suspect this arc will come to an end next month, just because after that last page, there’s really not that much further you can take this one. Bendis’s greatest feat on this one, though, is almost making the Red Hulk seem like a character for a couple of pages. Great big dumb summer blockbuster fun, and I mean that in the best way possible.

THOR #621—All right, yeah, those first three months were kind of a slow start, but this one is dials-in-the-red batshit from page one. Ferry has been turning in beauty from the beginning, but he really really outdoes himself here. And Matt Hollingsworth knocks the lights out on the coloring, just unbelievable tones. Very much looking forward to whatever Fraction and crew have in store this year. See you next month with Gillen and Braithwaite and the original classic moniker.

SECRET AVENGERS #11—Solid work. Think I’ll probably take off with Brubaker, though. The principle of them just charging an extra dollar for this because we’ll pay it drives me bananas in a way it doesn’t up there on THOR. I don’t know why.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #616—But then, man, this has to be the value buy of the week. For one measly extra dollar, you get 30 pages of Brubaker doled out across the first part of the next arc and a story about why we need Cap, not to mention a one page origin beautifully rendered by chronic sequential page dodger and cover artist Travis Charest. Then, there’s an excellent 14-page story by Chaykin, followed by three more 12-pagers, written and drawn mainly by people who I haven’t heard of, all of which are really excellent and diverse takes on the old stars and stripes. This is one of the better anniversary issues in recent memory, certainly standing head and shoulders next to the excellent AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #600.

INCOGNITO: BAD INFLUENCES #5—When it rains Brubaker, it pours. Must be that Portland weather. Events come spiraling to a head as Zack Overkill finds secret redemption that no one will even consider for a second as legitimate. These guys are just masters of the craft, man. Nobody colors raygun blasts like Val Staples. Extraordinary. Then, of course, Jess Nevins turns up at the end to blow everyone out of the water with yet another eye-opening essay, this time on the pulp supervillain. I keep meaning to dive back into his LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN annotations but am afraid that I wouldn’t resurface.

KICK-ASS 2 #2—A few months later, Romita’s managed to crank another one of these out alongside his flagship gig, and it maintains the momentum from last issue just fine, picking right up with the league of fools that Dave has inspired. But only one page of Hit-Girl! That will not stand, she was practically the lead last issue. Hope we don’t have to wait another six months for #3, but will be glad to get it whenever it shows up.

GIANT-SIZE JIMMY OLSEN #1—First of all, when I pulled out the last little run of ACTIONs in which the first 40 pages of this story was serialized, I stumbled upon #892, the month before Spencer and Silva got going. And what was the feature? SUPERBOY by Lemire and Gallo. No big deal, I thought this was the preview of #1 that sold me on the series originally, but no! It’s one of those in medias res (or, really, in finis res, the arc looks to be just about over) things, 10 pages of super action go time that we haven’t even made it up to yet by #5! It kind of blew my mind to reread something I first hit seven months ago, but now with all this built-in affection for the team and story. And it still takes place in our future! Huge bonus. So yeah, still loving SUPERBOY. Which didn’t come out this week.

What we have right here is basically a spineless trade of JIMMY OLSEN back-up features, the first four of which already ran in ACTION COMICS #893-6. It’s somewhat unfortunate for the folks who actually showed up to support this in its original format, because we paid an extra dollar those months for 10 pages of this per pop. But then, to get the final three parts, we’ve got to throw down another $6 for the entire thing, only thirty pages of which are new to us. You know what, though, I don’t care, because this story is so much fun, it short-circuits petty economical concerns. Didn’t even occur to me until after the fact. Nick Spencer gives Jimmy more heart and characterization than I can about ever remember him having, RB Silva knocks it out on the sequentials, and those last couple of pages crank it so far up that the effect is pretty much breathtaking. Fine fine work, all around. A good-looking Amanda Conner cover tops off a very enjoyable self-contained seventy pages that you can recommend to anyone who wants intelligent but fun character-driven shenanigans starring Jimmy Olsen and, apparently, Allison Mack.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE #13—Rafael Albuquerque returns and brings the thunder with him. And Snyder cranks it way up, as well. This book has never been anything less than great, but they really do take it up to a new level with this one. And barely anything’s happened yet! I’ve got to say, Snyder’s going to have to figure out an inversion or permutation of the trick of spending the entire first issue of a new arc setting up one situation only to have his title character show up on the last page for big Oh Noes! Even though, yeah, he still got me again this time. But one of these months, I’m going to remember and be looking for it!

DETECTIVE COMICS #875—No sign of Jock or Batman (well, mostly), but this is probably the best of Snyder’s short run yet. This one’s mainly a flashback depicting how little James, Jr. first displayed signs of the sociopath he would become. Never thought about it before now, but it makes perfect sense that the little baby that Bruce saves sans cowl at the end of YEAR ONE is still marked by the experience, tainted. Come to think of it, Gordon is standing on a bridge at the top of the issue. Do you think?!?!? Francesco Francavilla comes back with his best work yet, very reminiscent of Mazzucchelli’s lines in that all-time classic. This is a really strong done-in-one, folks.

And the L O S T nut in me can’t help noting that the dialogue in the first panel of page eight has a fifteen and not one but two eights in it, opposite an ad for ACTION COMICS #900, a monster anniversary issue whose lowest-billed writer is a guy named Damon Lindelof. And maybe that makes me crazy, but check this issue’s title.

ACTION COMICS #899—Pretty serious shit, right here. Jesus Merino drops in for amazing fill-in work to help Cornell ramp up for the home stretch next month. This one is a doozy. My favorite part is not the fanboy bait resolution to the Luthor/Braniac fight, but how Luthor, right before it gets going with Braniac, just lobs into the conversation the fact that he’s arranged for Superman to be caught in the same spacetime trap as his disciples. Almost positive that we’ve had no mention of the big guy whatsoever up until now, and that’s such a cool trick, subverting our assumptions. Just because this arc launched the same month as that JMS malarkey, I and I think most folks assumed that this ultimate Luthor story was running concurrent to Kal walking his way through what we might refer to as ANTI-STAR SUPERMAN, but no! This has nothing to do with that and Superman’s been maneuvered off-panel this entire time by the brilliant machinations of the star of our show. I heard Pete Woods is bailing out after next month, but I hope Merino or some other A-list talent holds the fort with Cornell for a long time to come, can’t imagine how wonderful mind-blowing it could get if this was a comic book starring, you know, Superman. Really really looking forward to next month.

BEST OF WEEK is about too close to call, folks! I could go to AVENGERS for fun, CAP for value and uniform excellence from many creative teams, really, either one of Snyder’s, or ACTION, or, I don’t know, those 70 pages of JIMMY OLSEN are really something, particularly if you happened to be reading them for the first time. Mm, yeah, if I pretend I hadn’t already gotten on board and then for some reason felt like gambling $6 on Olsen, yeah, that might be the one. It would be quite a lot to take in one blast.